Israel Wants Bodies of Slain Soldiers Back From Gaza
![](https://images.forwardcdn.com/image/970x/center/images/cropped/w-hadargoldin-080914-1423585436.jpg)
Israel asked the Red Cross on Thursday to help recover the remains of two soldiers killed in Gaza, Israeli officials said.
They said the request was made to Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon during an Egyptian-mediated truce that has temporarily halted the war in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel has lost 64 soldiers in the fighting, among them Shaul Oron and Hadar Goldin, who went missing on July 20 and on August 2 respectively.
Israeli authorities later declared them dead based on forensic findings. Israel says it does not know where Oron’s body is but that the army recovered Goldin’s partial remains, allowing his family to hold a funeral.
Hamas said hours after Oron’s disappearance it had captured him alive, publishing his name and military identification number but no photographs. While acknowledging that its men ambushed Goldin’s unit, Hamas says it has no information on his whereabouts.
An ICRC spokeswoman, Cecilia Goin, declined to confirm or deny the Israeli request.
“What we do normally, in every case of armed conflict, is offer our services to faciliiate the transfer of mortal remains. But we don’t discuss publicly any specific case,” she said.
A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, declined to comment comment other than to say: “Such matters are handled in special channels, and of course not through the media, as Netanyahu knows full well.”
In the past, Israel has twice released Arab prisoners in exchange for the bodies of soldiers slain by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. Israeli authorities have shown unwillingness to bargain for Oron’s and Goldin’s remains.
“Hamas is certain that abducting a soldier is our soft underbelly,” security cabinet minister Tzipi Livni said on Saturday. “The less we expose this belly, the less they will try to abduct soldiers in the future. We need to make this clear.”
![](https://forward.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/msgtwo.png)
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30